|
|
|
Structure
Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 25 general entries.
Special Topics
|
 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 Olympics History
| In the Ancient Olympic Games which was the only ethnic race to enter competition? | Cool Olympic Facts
|
Baron Pierre de Coubertin.
26 miles. The marathon's name comes from the story of a boy running many miles with the message that the Greeks (Athenians) had defeated the Persians in a battle at Marathon.
| How many symbols events are alike in the modern and ancient Olympic games? | Cool Olympic Facts
|
2. The two links are: Olympic Motto (citius altius fortius), and the torch relay.
| Who finished in 4th place in the 5,000m run at the 1972 games in Munich? | Cool Olympic Facts
|
Steve Prefontaine. Prefontaine was only 21 years old when he competed in Munich. His life was ended abruptly in 1975 in a car accident. His impact on track and field is still felt today.
| The last major Olympic upset of the 20th century was the boycotting of the Moscow Olympics by the USA, because Russia entered Afghanistan (something which the USA also did 20 years later). 60 countries followed the USA in the boycott, but the United Kingdom and many other European countries chose to enter. Which other city did Moscow beat to hold the 1980 Olympic Games? | Twisted History: The Olympics
|
Los Angeles. Smirnov, who was the organiser of the Russian Olympics, was also on the committee who decided that London was to hold the Olympics in 2012. It has been suggested that it was the United Kingdom's decision to ignore the USA and participate in the 1980 Olympics is one of the reasons London were given the honour to host the Games. It has also been suggested that Chirac's comments about the Finnish population could have swayed the decision away from Paris. Only 80 countries participated in the 1980 games, the lowest number since the 1956 Games, and these Olympic Games presented many sports that had never been seen in the Olympics before, such as field hockey (which was won by Zimbabwe.)
| In 1976, a young Romanian by the name of Nadia Comaneci arrived at the Montreal Olympics. What was so special about this young gymnast and her achievement at the 1976 Olympics? | Twisted History: The Olympics
|
She was the first person to get perfect 10s from all of the judges. (She was the first person to clear 20 feet in the pole vaulting, despite it not being her competition of choice, She fell and broke her arm on the parallel bars, but still managed to compete., She was the youngest person from Eastern Europe to ever win a medal in the Olympic Games.). Nadia Elena Comaneci is considered by some to be the best gymnast of the 20th century, and in the 1976 games, she won three gold medals, a silver, and a bronze, only to follow up that performance with a gold and two more silvers in the 1980 Olympics. When she first took part in the games, she was only 14 years old, and after her amazing set of results, she was named 'A Hero of Socialist Labour' in her homeland of Romania.
This is not Romania's only Olympic success, however. In the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Diana Mocanu became the first person from Romania to win a gold medal for swimming when she beat stiff competition from Russia and Japan. She finished expecting to find herself surrounded by other competitors, but instead finished seconds ahead of the pack in both the 100m and 200m backstroke races.
| In the early 1900s, there was lawn tennis. This extremely popular modern sport was in fact only a game to play in one's own back garden before Suzanne Langlen brought it into the fore. With her interesting gait, incredibly graceful movements, and astoundingly short skirts, she shocked and amazed the spectators at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics. What nationality was this famous player? | Twisted History: The Olympics
|
French. Suzanne Lenglen turned this garden party sport into a major game in the time that she played, and was often said to incorporate ballet and tennis into one sport. She won three medals in the 1920 Olympics, two gold medals and a bronze from singles, mixed doubles, and doubles, and her dominance over the competition was complete until she first competed in the US open. Sadly, Suzanne was knocked out in the first round, but she had a very good reason. She had whooping cough. Drawn against the reigning champion, Norwegian-American Molla Bjurstedt-Mallory, she lost the first set 6-2, and in the beginning of the second set, she began coughing and crying, unable to continue. Suzanne did get her revenge, however, as the next time the two met, Lenglen destroyed Bjurstedt Mallory 6-2, 6-0 in only 26 minutes.
| Although the Olympic Games have many of this type of sport today, no games of this kind were played in Ancient Greece. They were not held in high regard by the Greeks, and even though the Romans set aside specific areas for these kind of games, they were not spectator sports. They would be played on the street, while chariot racing was held in large arenas. What kind of games/sports am I talking about? | Twisted History: The Olympics
|
Ball games, which were often played with pig's bladders or, even earlier that that, skulls.. Ball games have never been hugely favoured up until the 20th century. In fact, they were banned in the United Kingdom by several monarchs, "lest it divert yeomen from practising with their bows and arrows". Most cultures saw archery as an important sport, be it the relevance to Odysseus, William Tell, or Robin Hood (all of whom were local heroes).
| Many games, played in the Olympics and in many other sporting tournaments, have basis in real life. Javelin throwing, for example, is as the throwing of a spear. Pole vaulting, the leaping of a stream by using a big stick. One such sport is the 'harrijasotzaileak', a sporting event played in the Basque regions of Spain and France. What does this sporting event actually involve? | Twisted History: The Olympics
|
A boulder or stone, weighing 350lb (159kg), being lifted to chest height.. Although 350lb is the amount that has to be lifted, much more has been lifted by some of the winners of the competitions. The tournament of harrijasotzaileak was held in Arenal, Bilbao, and is called the 'Bilbao Strongman Contest'. In August 2005, the reigning champion of the Bilbao Strongman contest, Mikeltxo Saralegui, and lifted a world record weight of 724lb (329kg). This sport is thought to be one of the earliest and most basic forms of weight lifting.
| Although archery has always been an Olympic event, the Japanese samurai had their own variations, such as mounted archery, which came about as early as the sixth century. What was the penalty for missing the target in these games of mounted archery? | Twisted History: The Olympics
|
Enforced suicide - if the target was frequently missed, then seppuku had to be carried out by the person who missed the target.. The game of Yabusame involved launching arrows from a charging horse and it was originally designed to train Samurai warriors. The penalty was always one added incentive to hitting the target - the warriors who missed were obliged to take their own lives.
A special 'turnip-headed' arrow is used in this discipline, and this style of archery has its origins at the beginning of the Kamakura period. When Minamoto no Yoritomo became alarmed at the lack of archery skills his samurai had, he organised yabusame as a form of practice. Yabusmae was not the only form of mounted archery created at the time.
There was also the incredibly cruel 'inuoumono', where archers would fire at dogs, but this form of archer was soon stopped by Buddhist monks, who made the archer use padded arrows so that the dogs would only be mildly annoyed, but not hurt.
| As the Irish have shown, the Greeks weren't the first people to use sport as a method of recreation. How is it known that the Ancient Egyptians and Assyrians also participated in modern day Olympic sports, as far back as 4000 B.C? | Twisted History: The Olympics
|
All of these three answers are correct. The Egyptians left a lot of evidence for their love of sports. (Tomb paintings in Egypt show running, rowing, and archery being played by the Ancient Egyptian people., Wall etchings that were located in Luxor, Egypt, show the Assyrian people swimming a stroke with the Greeks later called 'the crawl'., Hieroglyphics were found, recording the popularity and spread of boxing as a sport throughout the Nile Valley.). In Mexico, at about the same time, the Olmecs were playing sports such as a soccer like creation, which was played in a stone court with a small rubber ball. This often turned into a viscous blood sport, as human sacrifices were made using the losing team in a game. These games, it is said, were supposed to represent the battles between the Sun and the Moon, the two major forces in Olmec (and then later on, Inca) religion.
| As most people believe, the Olympics are one of the oldest organised games in the world, but they are far from the oldest. The first recorded organised games were held in Ireland much earlier than the first Olympics, but when were they held, and what were the called? | Twisted History: The Olympics
|
The games were held from 1800 B.C until around 1180 A.D, and they were called The Tailteann Games.. Although Princess Kyniska never held her own games, she was known as the first woman to win an event by sponsoring the chariot rider who won the race. The first Olympics were held in 776 B.C, so any games later than that could not have been the earliest recorded.
Many games that we are familiar with today were first played in The Tailteann Games, such as throwing and running events, or track and field as they are also known. Many games that were not played in the Olympics originally were also included, such as pole vaulting. This was a sport that originally was used from crossing boggy terrain, and was first devised in what is now the mdoern day Netherlands.
|
Play Now! 